Hundreds of students at Nghe An Province's Ethnic Boarding School are still waiting for their dormitories.
It has been 2 months since the Provincial People's Committee announced the results of the petition handling at the Provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities, but the teacher's family who borrowed land from the school to build a house still refuses to return the land, making the dormitory construction project impossible to complete. Meanwhile, hundreds of students are still having to live temporarily in the dining hall or school buildings.
Parents are upset
In early September, entering the new school year, many parents in mountainous districts directly brought their children down to school.Nghe An Province Boarding High School for Ethnic Minoritiesto receive dormitory rooms. However, what makes parents even more disappointed is that even though the new school year has begun, many children still have to stay temporarily in cramped school buildings lacking everything.
“I thought there would be a dormitory this school year. When I saw my son’s room, I felt sorry for him. It was hot and cramped. I don’t understand why it took so long to build,” said Vi Thi Hoang, a parent in Tuong Duong district whose son is in 11th grade.
This school year, the provincial Ethnic Boarding High School has 735 students. Of these, all male students in grades 11 and 12 still have to squeeze into the school buildings. Female students in grades 11 and 12 are arranged to stay in the school cafeteria. Only grade 10 students who have just started school are given priority to stay in the old dormitory buildings.
“Living temporarily in this school building is not only hot and cramped, but also very inconvenient for hygiene. Because the classrooms do not have toilets inside like the dormitories. If we want to shower or go to the toilet, we have to use the shared toilet downstairs. It’s a long way to go, and sometimes we have to wait in line. I just hope the dormitory will be built soon so I can move in,” a 12th grade male student confided. He said that having to live temporarily for a long time has greatly affected his studies and daily activities.
A year ago, the dormitory construction project started, and two rows of old dormitories built 40 years ago were demolished. To provide temporary accommodation for the students, the school divided the classrooms in half. Many of the rooms were less than 20m wide.2but there were up to 20 students. In addition, the school's cafeteria was also renovated to accommodate female students in grades 11 and 12. In some rooms, the students' belongings were stacked on top of each other, taking up most of the walkway. Two students had to sleep together on a single bed less than 90cm wide. Hundreds of students had to use one toilet.
“When we learned that the new dormitory construction project was stalled because teachers refused to hand over the borrowed land, we were very upset. We don’t understand why the issue has dragged on for so long without being resolved. When we saw the children living in cramped, inadequate and inconvenient temporary housing, we couldn’t help but feel sad. How can they study if they live like that?”, a parent from Que Phong district expressed his frustration.
Need to handle it soon
The case of teachers at the provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities borrowing collective houses and school land to build houses but then refusing to return them has been repeatedly brought to the attention of the provincial People's Committee and relevant agencies.conclude.In which, the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee have also issued documents many times.ask teachers to move elsewhere,hand over the site to the school.
After a long time, with hundreds of meetings, up to now, 4 households have agreed to leave and return the land. Only the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Ky has not yet left. Mr. Ky is a teacher living on the land of the provincial boarding high school for ethnic minorities. Although he has been retired for 15 years, he has not yet handed over the land for the school to build a dormitory for students, causing this project to be behind schedule.
A school leader said that Mr. Ky had previously requested compensation before leaving. However, after the Provincial People's Committee concluded that this was the school's land and Mr. Ky had no rights to this land, he continued to demand compensation for the assets on the land and at the same time had to be granted residential land without auction.
“After that, when talking to the school, Mr. Ky promised that when the provincial People's Committee issued a document allowing him to be granted residential land without auction, he would leave as soon as he saw the document. After that, the provincial People's Committee issued a document agreeing, but he still refused. He demanded both money and land handover without auction,” said the school leader.
On July 5, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued a document agreeing in principle to allow the Vinh City People's Committee to continue applying Decision No. 78/QD-UBND dated October 27, 2014, to prepare a dossier to allocate 1 land plot without auctioning land use rights to Mr. Nguyen Van Ky's household. The Provincial People's Committee also assigned the Vinh City People's Committee to be responsible for checking and approving eligible subjects to be allocated land without auctioning land use rights. Currently, this matter is being reviewed and approved by the Vinh City People's Committee.
Previously, in order to build a new dormitory, since 2019, the school has worked with 5 households, asking them to move within 1 year so that the school can clear the land to build a dormitory for students as committed in the contract. According to the school's leadership, at that time, these households asked for 3 years to arrange to move. The school agreed to the 3-year period. However, after the 3-year period, in October 2023, the project was started but the 5 households still refused to hand over the land for construction. Although many inspection teams have been established and have concluded that the entire land area where these households are living is within the school's campus, requiring the households to urgently relocate.
Related to similar cases that occurred inPhu Son Primary School (Tan Ky district) that Nghe An Newspaper reported on, a leader of Tan Ky district said, the district is assigning relevant departments to coordinate with Phu Son commune to handle and return the land to the school.
"This is the school's land, it must be returned to the school, no individual can own it. The family may have to support the assets that have been built, but the land must be returned. The commune and school's decision to give the land to the security guard is beyond their authority. During the handling process, whoever was wrong in the past must take responsibility," he said. Previously, the school lent the security guard 20m2land in the campus to build a barber shop right near the school gate. Later, this land was transferred to the son of the security guard, a cadre of Phu Son commune. After many years, the area of the house, outbuildings and business kiosk has now reached 156m2.2, not including 61m2was compensated in the previous canal and road project.